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Cheap Grace and Legalism
All through the Bible, the inspired writers emphasize the need for obedience. To think that it doesn’t matter what we do as long as Christ lives in our heart is a fallacy. If Christ truly lives in our heart, good actions must, inevitably, follow. At the same time, it’s no less fatal to think that we can be saved by our own works of obedience.
Paul wrote a very impressive list of his life, accomplishments, and pedigree before he met Jesus: he was circumcised on the eighth day, he was a descendant of Israel, he was a Pharisee, he had zeal, and he said he was faultless. Talk about legalism. After his conversion he called these things rubbish compared to knowing Christ. He gained righteousness by accepting the robe of Christ’s righteousness, and he wanted to become like Him.
Read Philippians 3:3–16. How is Paul here expressing the great truth of salvation by faith and what it means in the life of the one saved?
We must keep distinct, theologically, the imputed righteousness of Christ—the righteousness that justifies us— from the work that the Holy Spirit does in us to change us. We never must separate them in the context of what it means to be a Christian. We must have both. To have the first without the second is like having a coin with only one side. It doesn’t exist.
The understanding that obedience comes as a gift keeps us out of two ditches: cheap grace and legalism. First, we will believe in the importance of obeying, and second, our obedience will not be meritorious, because we will have received it as a gift. We are just as dependent upon Christ to obey the law and to be sanctified as we are on Him to be justified and forgiven before God. God is more than willing—He’s eager, not only to justify us but to give us the victory over sin and self. As always, the wild card remains our will: how willing are we to make the daily surrender of self to Him so that we “know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”? (Phil. 3:10, NIV).
Read over the texts again for today. Where do you see the reality of human free will? What does Paul mean in verse 16 when he says “let us live up to what we have already attained”? (NIV). What choices can you make that will allow you to do just that?
| THURSDAY | March 31 |
All through the Bible, the inspired writers emphasize the need for obedience. To think that it doesn’t matter what we do as long as Christ lives in our heart is a fallacy. If Christ truly lives in our heart, good actions must, inevitably, follow. At the same time, it’s no less fatal to think that we can be saved by our own works of obedience.
Paul wrote a very impressive list of his life, accomplishments, and pedigree before he met Jesus: he was circumcised on the eighth day, he was a descendant of Israel, he was a Pharisee, he had zeal, and he said he was faultless. Talk about legalism. After his conversion he called these things rubbish compared to knowing Christ. He gained righteousness by accepting the robe of Christ’s righteousness, and he wanted to become like Him.
Read Philippians 3:3–16. How is Paul here expressing the great truth of salvation by faith and what it means in the life of the one saved?
We must keep distinct, theologically, the imputed righteousness of Christ—the righteousness that justifies us— from the work that the Holy Spirit does in us to change us. We never must separate them in the context of what it means to be a Christian. We must have both. To have the first without the second is like having a coin with only one side. It doesn’t exist.
The understanding that obedience comes as a gift keeps us out of two ditches: cheap grace and legalism. First, we will believe in the importance of obeying, and second, our obedience will not be meritorious, because we will have received it as a gift. We are just as dependent upon Christ to obey the law and to be sanctified as we are on Him to be justified and forgiven before God. God is more than willing—He’s eager, not only to justify us but to give us the victory over sin and self. As always, the wild card remains our will: how willing are we to make the daily surrender of self to Him so that we “know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”? (Phil. 3:10, NIV).
Read over the texts again for today. Where do you see the reality of human free will? What does Paul mean in verse 16 when he says “let us live up to what we have already attained”? (NIV). What choices can you make that will allow you to do just that?
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